Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies has approved two key action programmes of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (Ipap), incentivising specific sectors within the automotive and agriculture sectors.

As part of Ipap for the financial years 2012/13 to 2014/15, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) aimed to introduce the people-carrier automotive investment scheme programme, which was a subcomponent of the automotive incentive scheme, providing grants to support the manufacturers or assemblers, as well as automotive component manufacturers.

Component manufacturers could expect to receive a grant of 20%, adding another 10% for meeting undisclosed economic bene- fit criteria.

The grant for semiknockdown investments was expected to be about 20%, with an addi- tional 5% for meeting certain economic benefit criteria, while the grant for complete knocked-down investments would be 25%, with an additional 10% for the achievement of the economic benefit criteria.

Meanwhile, the DTI, along with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), approved the Aquaculture Development and Enhancement Programme (ADEP).

The programme, which was planned to assist both new entrants in the sector and existing aquaculture ventures, aimed to increase investments in the sector, enhancing competitiveness and increasing employment opportunities.

The ADEP would also target rural development and food security and would seek to increase production, while spreading the sector’s geographical footprint, taking into consideration rural areas and contributing to broad-based black economic empowerment.

“The ADEP is an intervention towards mitigating the financial challenges identified in the aquaculture sector and a response to a need identified in the National Aquaculture Strategic Framework, developed by the DAFF,” Davies said in a statement.

Despite the global aquaculture sector recording a rapid food production growth rate of 8% to 10% a year over the past two decades, South Africa reported a growth rate of only 3% in 2010.

Davies attributed the slow growth to a lack of integrated plans and government involvement in driving development of the sector.

He believes that the promotion of investment in production and support infrastructure, as well as the establishment of industry/farmer support and management programmes, will lead to substantially increased investment in the aquaculture sector.